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Summary: Rear Window is the best Hitchcock film
Review: Grace Kelly and a lame (broken leg) James Stewart are a couple in love who through the rear window of Stewarts apartment see what they may think is a murder. The film is a tale of voyerism and parinoia. While the murder is being investaged by the rear window detectives a number of small interrlated storys are seen in the other apartment facing the rear window. Hitchcock udnerstood how to create suspence not by hiding things but exposing things and then letting his characters react. Kelly and Stewart are wonderful and only rivaled by a supporing cast of nonames who are always great in Hitchcock films
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Summary: Hitch Classic
Review: Rear Window may probably be my favorite Hitchcock film. About a man(Jimmy Stewart)who is confined to his apartment, by injury, and suspects a man in the apartment complex across from him has murdered his wife. Ultimate climax scene when murderer tries to attack Stewart in his apartment.I say again, this is an exellent movie for fans and even not-so-much fans of Hitchcock, and is also an all around fabulous film.
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Summary: Now that it has been restored---can we have the DVD?
Review: Just got through watching the restored Rear Window--it had been so many years since I'd seen it, it was like greeting an old friend... What a wonderful, suspenseful movie by the master...please oh please oh please release this on DVD!
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Summary: My Favorite Hitchcock Movie!
Review: "We've become a race of peeping toms. What people ought to do is get outside their own house and look in for a change." So says Stella (Thelma Ritter) at the start of "Rear Window". Alfred Hitchcock's best film and one of my all-time favorites. It's a key line into the film which was taken from a short story called "It Had To Be Murder" written by Cornell Woolrich and made into a screenplay by John Michael Hayes.
"Rear Window" gives Hitchcock the chance to explore one of his favorite themes;voyeurism. L.B. Jeffries (James Stewart) is a photographer for a magazine who managed to break his leg in an automobile race track accident. He has a cast from his foot up to his hip and has been in it for 6 weeks. Jeffries' passes his time by staring outside his window looking (or spying) at his neighbors. I've noticed many people seem to overlook something cruical in this. Jeffries as the saying goes is a "watcher" NOT a "doer". He is by profession a photographer. He's always seeing the world through his lens. Never actually experiencing life himself. I bet even if he wasn't injured it seems like the kind of thing this guy would do anyway. It's in his blood. It's how he makes his living. By capturing moments of people's lives or popular events. But, one day, Jeffries is going to see too much.
What makes "Rear Window" such a great film is the way the screenplay is constructed. The viewer never knows more than the lead character. Everything we see, we only see becuase that's exactly what he sees. We can only draw the same conclusions he does, because we only know as much as him. If he says 1+1=3, we have to go along with him, because we don't know otherwise. And this is where all the suspense leads in. You see, for those who have never seen this movie. Jeffries thinks he has seen one of his neighbors murder his wife. Mr. Thorwald (Raymond Burr, who would later become a lawyer, go figure!) was seen leaving his house several times durning the night. We see him wrap up a saw and knife. And the next morning his bedridden wife is gone! Was she murdered? Or is there a reasonable explaination for everything? We are lead to believe she was murdered.
Hitchcock has such a confident feel for the material. I don't know if his directing was ever better. Some may argue "Psycho" or "Vertigo" but, whichever film you chose you can't deny how brilliant his directing is here. The way he adds to the suspense. Our emotions go back and forth. Was there a murder committed or not?
As with all Hitchcock films you can expect that dry wit. In my opinion it has never played off as well has it does here. It's all over the place. Take Thelma Ritter for example. She plays an insurance company nurse sent to take care of Jeffries. Her dialogue is full of witty remarks. Just about ever word she choses to use seems inappropriate at the time. There is also a character named "Miss Lonelyheart". A scene involves her getting dressed up, ligthing some candles, dimming the lights, fixing the dinner table and than pretending she has a gentleman guest. It may not sound funny as you read it, but, to see it will put a smile on your face.
Besides Stella (Ritter) no one enters Jeffries apartment except Lisa Carol Fremont (Grace Kelly, looking her absolute best!). A designer who is a well known Manhattan socialite. Things are rocky in their relationship as Jeffries thinks she is "too perfect". But, naturally it's takes a murder to bring them together.
"Rear Window" was quite a big hit when first released. Hitchcock was at a peak in his career when this was made. The movie was nominated for 4 Oscars including "Best Director". When is was made it was also the largest set on the Paramount lot. But, that doesn't stop the movie from having a big city feel to it. Here's a Hitchcock movie any true Hitchcock fan HAS to see.
Bottom-line: Alfred Hitchock's best film. One of my all-time favorites. Great directing, great acting and chemistry betwwen Stewart and Kelly. Hitchcock at the top of his game.
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Summary: One of the All-Time Greats!
Review: Few films offer this much attention to detail. Hitchcock created one of the most elaborate and stylish films ever made. Jimmy Stewart is in top form playing L.B. Jefferies, the photographer who enjoys to spy on his neighbors in his free time. The beautiful Grace Kelly delivers a strong female presence in the film, the scene where she first kisses Stewart is incredibly sexy. While she is not remembered the most by her acting, but then Hitchcock always said he used women as 'sex objects' and chose them for their looks (the blonde goddess look seems to be his favorite), however politically incorrect his methods were, it sure worked, and will keep on working. Maybe Hitchcock's greatest accomplishment was making us feel like a 'voyeur', and thinking that Stewart spying on his neighbors is a natural thing, and we even want him to, more and more, as we get enthralled in the mystery; did Mr. Thorwald kill his wife and is he really chopping up her body?. We get hooked on that premise and that is when Hitchcock takes us for a ride into his psychological roller-coaster, making us; the 'viewer', feel like the 'voyeur', when we know that it is not right. The extremely suspenseful ending is a knock-out and the whole film is an example of Hollywood in it's golden years and of a genius at his peak. Extras: the usual Hitchcock cameo; the person adjusting the clock in the piano player's apartment. From a scale of 1-10 I give this film a 10!
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Summary: See This Wherever And Whenever You Can! His Best!
Review: This is one of the best movies ever made. Created with a minimum of violence James Stewart and Grace Kelly are perfectly cast in this wonderful thriller. Voyeurism at its finest, especially as we follow the multiple stories in the movie. A lot of the action takes place off camera and all of it from the vantage point of Stewart. The premise is one of the most clever ones ever put to film and there is so much to watch for that you need to see it a couple of times to catch all of the nuances. Unfortunately, this movie is no longer available for sale on VHS. Do yourself a favor and see it in a film revival, rent the movie if you can find it, or buy it at an auction site. It is a film that is well worth seeking out.
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Summary: Rear Window
Review: One of the best movies ever made! A murder-mystery that is perfectly executed. A movie that leaves You feeling good and makes You question the talent of todays moviemakers. Do yourself a favour and see it! The only thing that would add to this masterpiece is a DVD-edition viewed on a rainy sunday-afternoon!
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Summary: What a Wonderful Window!/ Where's the DVD?
Review: Rear Window is almost too good to be true. It is definitely one of the most perfect movies ever made. To me Rear Window is a perfect movie. Everything in it is extraordinary, from the actors James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Thelma Ritter, and a menacing Raymond Burr, to the writing, editing, and directing by "Hitch", to the beautiful color cinematography by Robert Burks, and even the musical score. Further proof that Rear Window is so incredibly great, is that it is able to completely enthrall both passionate cinema viewers, as well as casual movie viewers. Also, what is amazing is that the entire movie takes place in the apartment of James Stewart's character. I Drove 600 miles about a couple of months to have the opportunity and privelege to be in the presence and view Rear Window at the Stanford Theater, because it is the nearest theater to me that would play this miraculous film on the big screen, and it was worth every mile! Rear Window is a perfect example of what Hitchcock called "pure cinema", and there have been very very few films that are in the same league as Rear Window, and two others are "Psycho" and "Vertigo." All that set aside, when for heaven's sake is the "DVD"! going to be released? It is frustrating as hell to look at all of the garbage that is released on DVD and some even with a load of Bonus feautures, while Rear Window being held back for some reason or another.
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Summary: Today's Hollywood should watch and learn
Review: Minimal violence, but much more suspense than today's slash and kill trash movies. Dialog -- ever heard of that Hollywood? This has discussion: about privacy, about relationships, about a murder. Basically, this movie has it all, and Hitch did it with just a simple apartment complex set. Also, today's so-called starlets, step off! Grace Kelly is the best! She's drop-dead gorgeous, love the accent, dresses to the hilt, has an incredible smile and is intelligent. Of course, I probably left out many other great qualities. Grace alone is enough to watch this movie. I watched it twice on the big screen last month and loved each and every minute of it! I sure wish Hollywood would make a movie like this today.
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Summary: Come spy with me
Review: One of Hitchcock's best; he often made us feel as though we were spying on people in his films (like in "Psycho," "Strangers on a Train") but this one was probably his most obvious attempt to cash in on the natural craving of human beings to want to know other people's business ("get the dirt on them," so to speak). Jimmy Stewart plays L.B. Jeffries, a photographer who is laid up in his apartment with a broken leg. Out of boredom, he spends his days and nights staring out of his apartment window into the rooms of other tenants across from him. One night, he hears some strange goings-on in the apartment directly across from his; little by little, he begins to suspect that the man who lives across from him (played by Raymond Burr) has murdered his wife. Able to withstand multiple viewings, unlike many murder mysteries, particularly because of the standout performance of Thelma Ritter, as Stewart's wisecracking comic-relief nurse Stella, who starts out disapproving of his spying but later becomes just as curious as he does about what is happening. There's a touch of Hitch in Ritter's character - she demonstrates perfectly the macabre sense of humor that Hitchcock tried to inject a little bit of in all his films and in his TV show (her comments about how she thinks Burr did it will keep you laughing throughout). Grace Kelly is very good as Stewart's girlfriend, who also gets in on the voyeurism game and almost goes too far (in one of the most suspenseful scenes in the picture - you'll be biting your nails the first time you see it). It's interesting how (in keeping with the theme of voyeurism) the activities of all the apartment house tenants center on either sex or death, the two great taboos which human beings naturally shy away from discussing openly. Definitely worth the price of the DVD - highly recommended for purchase.
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